Just an incidental thought. Have you played Ultimate General: American Civil War?
First Bull Run is the first major battle in the campaign, and it gives you a chance to control the armies on either side, which, ngl, is part of the reason I kinda already knew what the broad movements of the engagement were going to be like in my head.
One of the fun things about the history of the battle is Beauregard had essentially the same plan as McDowell, go around the enemyās left. The execution of the rebel plan was just even more botched so it hadnāt gotten underway before the federal attack started. Joe Johnston heard all the gunfire over on the rebel left and decided they needed to cancel the attack and start redeploying for defense.
@Random_Person I have been toying with an idea for the sequel where you can seek to aggrandize your state in some way. Or maybe I will just add the ability to enhance your own reputation in the state to help your future career or something.
@Cataphrak I have logged over 300 hours on that game. They did a fabulous job with accuracy. If it had a little bit better AI and balancing it would be even better. Itās sort of a modern adaptation of R.E.Lee Civil War General, which I played with my dad as a little kid on our Windows 95 computer. Sadly, that game has never been adapted to any computer newer than a 95.
@roodcross Yeah, itās pretty interesting. Maybe if the rebel attack went forward they would have lost and the war could have ended sooner. But thatās just speculation.
I play through it once every few years and itās always a good time, although for some reason, I find its predecessor a lot harder for some reason.
Iām also looking forward to Grand Tacticianās campaign modeā¦ whenever they get around to making it work properly.
I played through Ultimate Admiral as the British. Very fun game.
I most certainly believe they wonāt fix it. Iām more inclined to suspect that sooner or later, they just start working on a sequel with a stable base. Nontheless Grand Tactician is a very enjoyable game, even with all itās problems and suicidal A.I. .
Itās fine, Iāll just pretend every AI officer is Braxton Bragg or something.
Braxton Bragg should have been fragged. Dude was amazing at clutching defeat from the jaws of victory.
But then most of the southern generals are ridiculously overrated (Lee and Jackson in particular).
I do love Ultimate General but by the time I get to Chickamauga Iām like āsurely those slaving bastards would have given up by nowā.
Very fun game! I enjoyed it very much, and it engrosses you into the battle very deeply.
I agree on Lee only because the Lost Cause tried to make him into Napoleon. I do think he was a good army commander, but this was blown way out of proportion largely because he was probably the only good large army commander the Rebels had so the Lost Cause tried to elevate him from good to āone of the best of all timeā.
Agree on Jackson. He was basically a one-trick pony as a Corps commander. The trick being to perform unexpectedly rapid forced marches that allowed him to have an overwhelming advantage at the point of contact, typically against very poor Federal opponents. He needed this because his tactical abilities to direct his men on a field of battle are often not that good, at least at Corps level. Longstreet was much better at directing men on the actual battlefield.
Idk if you know this, but one of the men of the battery he commanded in Mexico tried to blow him up with a shell twice. He always had a way with his subordinates.
On the contrary, they should have left his statue alone and his statue alone only.
There were Federal Corps commanders who contributed less to the good guys winning than Bragg did,
āThe Federals are my adversaries. All my subordinates are the enemyā
UPDATES RELEASED
fixes to the first part of the battle.
ability to go back and choose a different appearance.
if you choose Minnesota, the 1st Minnesota becomes 2nd Minnesota.
deleted chapter breaks as inconsistent.
more character backgrounds.
removed some unrealistic state options.
added some state specific interactions.
Been a few updates since I played and as a southerner, I enjoy the addition of upper south states as an option for origin. There were a good number of naval and army officers that stayed loyal because of their oaths of allegiance and similar reasons,
Some of the Lees (including Robertās cousin in the Navy who became an admiral) stayed with the US. Stonewall Jacksonās sister whom heād always been close with actually never spoke to him again because of his decision.
Glad you like it. I added states based on an internet database with statistics on Union soldiers by state. I included āWest Virginiaā as Virginia because West Virginia didnāt break away until 1863, so the West Virginia soldiers would have just been northern Virginians in 1861. I left out some of the states that contributed the least troops, less than 5,000 or so.
I am currently on the fence about including California, New Mexico Territory, Colorado Territory, and Nebraska Territory. I received feedback that adding these was distracting because itās not quite accurate. I am on the fence, but leaning toward including them. If the player doesnāt want to be from the west, they donāt have to choose these states. In real life, the western regiments didnāt travel to the eastern theater, but I think that might be a tiny quibble in what is already historical fiction.
UPDATES PUBLISHED:
story mentions mule drivers causing slow downs.
added picture of Captain Withington.
improved conversations with Captains Lum/Withington.
added more background specific options.
changed some of the player surname options to include Irish and German names.
minor fixes.
I canāt believe I missed this wip. I went through a phase in junior high of being obsessed with the Civil War. When I was 14 I worked all summer to afford the entire Time Life Civil War series. Read it all cover to cover repeatedly.
So I wasnāt fooled for a second by the 33rd Virginia and their blue uniforms. Even felt a little bad when I captured those guns and turned them on the Henry House. My mc had no way of knowing about poor Judith Henry.
Your attention to detail was excellent and you made my inner 14 year old boy very happy.
Wow, thanks for the great compliment! Iām glad you enjoyed it.And donāt worry, I think you fired on the Dogan house if Iām not mistaken.
Ahh, my mc is relieved. See this is what I meant about attention to detail. You even caught my favorite weird fact about Bull Run, that the Union army was the Army of Virginia and the Confederate forces included Beauregardās Army of the Potomac.
Iāll try to do a more helpful read through but for now I guess Iām just a fan boy.
Does anyone ever look at the Union order of battle in the stats page? Or is it totally useless and unnecessary? I wonder if I should remove it.
Also:
UPDATES
more maps made and added into the game.
added player surname to applicable maps.
updated stat screen map triggers.
simplified early battle map coding.
general map improvements.
added historical summary on the end.
